Burnham Addresses His MPs as Cabinet Jockeying Begins
Andy Burnham addressed the parliamentary Labour party today for the first time as prime minister-in-waiting, telling MPs his cabinet would reflect “a broad church of ideas”. With his path to Downing Street secured, the jockeying for jobs has begun in earnest: Ed Miliband is being tipped as a possible chancellor and the future of Rachel Reeves is openly in doubt, while Wes Streeting and the deputy leader, Lucy Powell, are among those linked to senior roles. He is expected to be confirmed leader this week and to take office on 20 July.
The cabinet is the first real substance of a Burnham government, and the speculation — it is only that, since he cannot appoint anyone until he is prime minister — captures the central tension of his project. Keeping Reeves would signal continuity and reassure the markets; moving her for a figure like Miliband would signal the looser, more interventionist “Manchesterism” his allies favour, and the bond market would notice. His “broad church” language is an attempt to hold his party together after a leadership handed to him without a contest, and after last night’s immigration vote showed the left will not simply fall into line. The in-tray is unforgiving: a Gulf war and its oil shock, stretched public finances, and a welfare system his own party calls unfit. Watch the nomination close this week, Reeves’s fate, and the first names Burnham actually appoints once the King has asked him to form a government.